When administrators at the University of Oklahoma embarked on the One University Digital Initiative — a broad, sweeping campaign to ensure the institution will take its place in the digital realm — they were determined to sustain its momentum for the long term.

Kyle Harper, university provost stressed that "It was not just presenting a committee with a set of decisions that have to be made, but involving people across a wide part of the campus at different levels — faculty, deans, administrators and staff. Another important aspect is communication. You generate excitement by telling the story well."

To keep enthusiasm for the initiative going strong, the university conveted its bookstore into a One University showcase based loosely on the idea of an Apple Store. "We wanted to draw students into this space with things that are new, fun and exciting that they can interact with," Hathaway explained. Those elements include Google Liquid Galaxy, an immersive Google Earth experience and Makerbot 3D printing.

Nicholas Hathaway, OU's vice president of executive affairs and administrative affairs, noted that while these elements help generate buzz, the initiative has potential to address some of the challenges facing higher education in a concrete way, particularly associated with lowering costs for students. For example, perhaps the lowest-hanging fruit involves having faculty promote the adoption of low-cost digital learning materials or creating their own.

Money magazine unveiled a new set of college rankings. To develop the rankings, the magazine joined with Mark S. Schneider, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research and a former commissioner of the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.

The list ranks 665 colleges according to 17 factors in three categories: Quality of education, affordability and career outcomes.

Ed Tech Promoters Need to Understand How Most of us LearnThe Hechinger Report

At a young age, Bill Gates was already an autodidact, someone compelled to learn for himself what he needed to know. Over the course of his life, Gates has maintained this habit: He dropped out of college after two years, but he has continued his education through incessant reading and conversing.

Many of Gates’s fellow leaders in the ed tech world are also members of the autodidact club. Computer scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, academics—they are a self-selected group of individuals who have schooled themselves in a fast-changing field for which there is no settled syllabus, no well-established curriculum.

This is a very particular take on learning: the autodidact’s take. We shouldn’t mistake it for most people’s reality. Most people are not autodidacts. In order to learn effectively, they need guidance provided by teachers. They need support provided by peers. And they need structure provided by institutions. Productive learning without guidance and support from others is rare.

The autodidacts who create and promote the educational technology used by the rest of us could keep in mind that the support of people and institutions is always integral to learning. For most, that will mean the physical presence of teachers, of peers, of classrooms and schools. No human being learns in isolation; education is an inherently social enterprise.

Transforming a Traditional Library Into a Technology-Rich Learning CommonsCampus Technology

When the University of Denver embarked on a major interior renovation of Penrose Library, the institution's main library for more than 40 years, what it had in mind was more than the modernization of brick and mortar structures, and more than the incorporation of new technology into updated physical spaces.

The institution saw an opportunity for a fundamental rethinking of the use of space in order to provide the technology-enhanced services that support the new ways people work and learn in a digital environment.

Opened in 2013, the facility offers ample technology-infused spaces for collaboration, increasing the number of group study areas. The Anderson Academic Commons has become the intellectual heart of the campus, chock-full of collaborative spaces, high-tech meeting rooms, academic support centers, social areas and more.

An array of academic support centers have found their home in the commons, including the Writing Program, the University Technology Services help desk and a tutorial center (with the growing participation of math, physics, chemistry and engineering groups). A full-service café inside the building is a welcome feature for students who spend long hours at Anderson. And the Office of Teaching and Learning, the organization serving faculty with pedagogical support, is also located in the facility.

Though many of tech's most successful entrepreneurs are college dropouts — Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Michael Dell, just to name a few — a degree can goes long way when it comes to starting a business.

Comic books have time and again proven their worth as a way to educate and raise awareness about social issues. While some publishers have used famous superheroes, others have opted to create their own defenders of truth, justice and bicycle safety... often with regrettable results.